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GE Water Softener
If you’re looking specifically for a GE water softener, you might want to check out some other units before you settle on this brand. Even though GE is a very large company and has a reputation for quality in many home appliances, it seems that water softener technology is not their strong point. Look up some comparisons before you decide to make your purchase, or even before you choose to repair an existing unit.
You have to love the interactive nature of the Internet. You don’t have to search too far to find people who have been unhappy with a GE water softener. It seems that the “Smartwater” model has come in for some special criticism. In one particular case, a fellow claims that leaving it in the box will save you more money and be just as effective over the course of a year as actually installing it. This is because the unit failed to effectively soften water just after the warranty period, but it still went through just as much water and salt. I guess the “smart” part of “smartwater” is that it’s smart enough to know when the warranty has expired.
In another case, when the GE water softener failed, he actually called a repair person out to fix it. The problem was identified as a scored disc internal to the control unit that prevented a proper seal so that the brining process did not actually take place. The repair bill came to $300, which is expensive. It’s even worse when you consider that he paid about $400 for the water softener when it was new. It doesn’t seem to make good economic sense to get an appliance like this when the repair cost nearly equals the new unit cost every 18 to 20 months.
It turns out that you can order the parts and do the repair yourself, but you end up with much more than you actually need. The parts for the repair of this particular problem, which can be found described similarly in many other places, involves the purchase of at least two different parts kits. After getting the kits, you need to disassemble the control unit, but there are no instructions in the units manual for how to accomplish this. Instead you have to go online once again to find diagrams of the actual area to be repaired and the parts that need to be replaced.
When you make the repair yourself, it will come to about $100 for the parts plus your time to do the repair. If you’re fairly handy, it should not take you that long. And since you will be doing the repair relatively often, you will likely get adept at doing it.
Is this unusual for a water softener? If you were instead to go with a company that specializes in water softener technology you can expect at least five to seven years to go by before need to do a repair or maintenance. It’s readily apparent that GE water softeners are not highly thought of and that while GE may be a fine company for aircraft engines, industrial controls, and other home appliances (especially their Profile line) they’re not specialists in this area of home improvement.